Westpac Banking Corp Acquires 4,317 Shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET)

Westpac Banking Corp increased its holdings in shares of Arista Networks, Inc. (NYSE:ANET) by 65.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 10,888 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,317 shares during the quarter. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in Arista Networks were worth $1,203,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stock Yards Bank & Trust Co. bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks during the fourth quarter worth $242,000. GHE LLC increased its holdings in Arista Networks by 319.0% during the 4th quarter. GHE LLC now owns 28,368 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,136,000 after purchasing an additional 21,597 shares in the last quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC raised its stake in shares of Arista Networks by 327.6% in the 4th quarter. Colonial River Investments LLC now owns 9,745 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,077,000 after purchasing an additional 7,466 shares during the period. Unified Investment Management bought a new stake in shares of Arista Networks in the fourth quarter valued at about $630,000. Finally, Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Arista Networks by 257.6% during the fourth quarter. Berkshire Capital Holdings Inc. now owns 76,950 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $8,505,000 after buying an additional 55,430 shares during the period. 82.47% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Arista Networks

In other news, Director Charles H. Giancarlo sold 8,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $112.02, for a total value of $896,160.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 155,784 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,450,923.68. The trade was a 4.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, SVP Kenneth Duda sold 80,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.47, for a total transaction of $9,477,600.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,976 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,537,266.72. This represents a 86.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 491,001 shares of company stock worth $48,840,431. Insiders own 3.54% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on ANET. Erste Group Bank cut Arista Networks from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. UBS Group raised shares of Arista Networks from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $112.00 to $115.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Rosenblatt Securities restated a “sell” rating and set a $80.00 target price on shares of Arista Networks in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Piper Sandler reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $108.00 price target (up from $106.00) on shares of Arista Networks in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Arista Networks from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $114.00.

Arista Networks Stock Down 11.2 %

ANET opened at $71.15 on Friday. Arista Networks, Inc. has a 12-month low of $60.08 and a 12-month high of $133.58. The business has a 50 day moving average of $95.30 and a 200-day moving average of $101.39. The stock has a market cap of $89.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.05, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.30.

Arista Networks (NYSE:ANET) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The technology company reported $0.59 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.57 by $0.02. Arista Networks had a return on equity of 29.91% and a net margin of 40.72%. The business had revenue of $1.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.90 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Arista Networks, Inc. will post 2.2 earnings per share for the current year.

About Arista Networks

Arista Networks, Inc engages in the development, marketing, and sale of data-driven, client to cloud networking solutions for data center, campus, and routing environments in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. Its cloud networking solutions consist of Extensible Operating System (EOS), a publish-subscribe state-sharing networking operating system offered in combination with a set of network applications.